Hybrid motor starters of the present art are known to increase electrical contact life. However, the state-of-the-art hybrid motor starter is generally confined to smaller motors of 10 horsepower or less because the required electrical rating, physical size and component cost of solid state switching devices for larger motors is not practical. Typically, these hybrid starters require one electronic switching device for each phase and those electronic switching devices must be sized to withstand the heat generated by the full starting current of the motor. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop a hybrid motor starter for larger (greater than 10 horsepower) three phase motors that did not require three solid state switching devices, and/or was physically smaller and did not need to withstand the full starting current of the motor.